Double delight for RAF rugby league as Navy suffer home turf blues

The Royal Air Force women and senior men were both victorious over the Senior Service on the opening week of Inter Services rugby league in Portsmouth. 

The women turned their fortunes around from 12 months ago with a brilliant win over the Navy.

A year on from scoring only four points across the whole tournament, the light blues got on the scoresheet early, touching down four tries in the first half.

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A brace of tries from both Hannah McCabe and Shannon Pasotti and one successful kick by Cerys McNevin, put them in a commanding 10-18 lead at half time. 

Joanna Banks and Navy skipper Josie Parnaby got on the scoresheet for the home team, both converted by Libby Fox. 

The second 40 got underway in a similar fashion with the RAF's Grace Burnett claiming a brace of her own in the 42nd and 45th minutes. 

McCabe completed her hat trick in the final quarter and the Navy just couldn't find any reply, with the Royal Air Force taking the win 10-34.

In the men's game, the defending champions, the Royal Navy, were beaten in their own backyard by a very well-organised airforce side. 

Crossing over twice in the first 10 minutes really put pressure on the Senior Service. Player of the match Kieron Prescott got the ball rolling with the first try, followed up quickly by his captain Liam Bradley crossing the whitewash and converted by Finn Curtis. 

Finn O'Brien touched down on the half hour before the Navy finally made their first foray onto the scoreboard with Luke Baird scoring for the Band of Brothers, covered by Ben Conner. But, at half time, the RAF led 6-14.

The home team started strong after the break with the speed of captain Brodie Butler and the boot of Conner combining to bring them within two points, but the RAF fought off the fightback and Prescott popped up again only minutes later to further squash any Navy hopes with his second. 

Olly Park and Will Lamont both added to the RAF lead before a late flourish from the Navy through a Ben Chambers try, but it came too late and the RAF ran out winners 18-30.

Earlier, the Navy Academy beat their RAF counterparts 32-16. The Inter Services action moves to Leeds next week where the Air Force host the Army live on the BFBS Forces News YouTube channel.